Ms. Dinoire said she went to look at herself in a mirror and "couldn't believe what I was seeing — it was too horrible."

Her lips were gone, along with her chin and much of her nose, leaving her teeth and part of her lower jawbone exposed, her doctors said....

Ms. Dinoire's doctors said it would be months before they would know how much motor control she would develop in the transplanted part of her face. But Ms. Dinoire said that "being able to show emotions through my face" was already the best thing about her transplant and that she hoped to eventually be able to smile and grimace.

Ah, to grimace again! I hope you appreciate your ability to grimace. Go on, celebrate life. Do some good grimacing today!

She said the transplant had been a long ordeal, but that "in the end, I never really suffered."

She defended her decision to resume smoking within weeks of the transplant, something remarked upon by the news media.

"Anyway, I never stopped smoking," she said, adding that she regrets only the trouble the news of her smoking caused.

Oh, give the woman a break. She's entitled to her pleasures as she defines them. This is a person who, on awakening from a deep unconscious state with her face chewed off, did not notice that something had gone horribly wrong but that she needed a smoke. That is some serious devotion to smoking.

Dave: You should consider whether I was being judgmental in saying leave her alone. Perhaps I'm saying that in her case, trying to live a long time and avoid cancer is a small matter. But here you are, trying to entice us into being judgmental about you being judgmental. I'm not going to fall down that rat hole.

Well, Simon, she flirted with suicide and her donor accomplished the act, so self-destruction is sort of off the table here.

Best of luck to her. It's just another body part that's being transplanted, right? What's the big deal? Just another opportunity for people to condemn her for whatever societal piety she seems to be violating.

In the early 60s film "Les Yeux sans Visage" (Eyes Without a Face) a French scientist's 20-some year old daughter loses her face in a car accident. He attempts to transplant other young women's faces on to his daughter, but it never seems to work out quite right. A classic horror movie directed by Georges Franju.

Since I'll leap at any chance to cheapen the tone on Ms. Althouse's blog, that reference to Les Yeux Sans Visage reminded me of Hellraiser II, which was far and away the best of Clive Barker's Hellraiser series. The evil Dr. Channard, fascinated by those Hell-portal puzzle-boxes, resurrects wicked stepmother Julia Cotton, who was killed in the previous film. Her return to corporeality doesn't happen right away, and even after her bones, organs and muscles are restored, her skin is not. Still a gruesome, de-fleshed wraith, Julia asks for, and is given, a cigarette. (Anti-tobacco activists take note -- Hell apparently has joined the many localities that have enacted strict no-smoking ordinances.) Also before she regains her skin, Julia requests a glass of wine and, um, a little lovin'. You could rent it if you're curious about what happens next.

At any rate, it's nice that this French woman got her skin back without her doctors summoning any demons from the underworld -- which would probably not be covered under socialized medicine anyway.

Re: "Oh, give the woman a break. She's entitled to her pleasures as she defines them."

Absolutely, Ann. As evidenced in some of the posts here, however, our current health puritansim dictates that while any behavior between adults (plus or minus consent) is permissible - or even Oscar material- smoking is a sin.

The Sin of Smoking. It's the last refuge for those who wish to moralize but find that modern relativism has reduced all actions to mere preference. But smoking, which is evil. How could she?

Meanwhile, about two years ago Russian doctors floated the idea that taking up smoking when one is 50 or 55 might greatly aid mental acuity and fight senility... while the negative effects on the lungs and so forth would only "kill you after you're dead" (in other words, likely take more time to get you than your allotted time n earth).

But does the phrase "Russian doctors" inspire confidence? I'm not sure.